Primož Roglič has dismissed any idea that this year's Tour de France may represent the last chance for him to realistically win the race as he takes on Tadej Pogačar, Jonas Vingegaard, and Remco Evenepoel with his new squad Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe.
The 34-year-old is taking on the Tour for the seventh time in his career and faces off against three major competitors, each of whom has an obstacle to overcome. Pogačar is racing his second Grand Tour of the year, for Vingegaard question marks hang over his recovery from the Itzulia Basque Country crash, and for Evenepoel whether he can win on his debut.
Roglič, who turns 35 in October, is the oldest of the top tier of competitors by seven years but said in a pre-race press conference in Florence that he's not concerned about running out of chances to win the race.
"It's true [I'm 34], but I still feel young now," he said. "I'm just happy – every opportunity you can have in your mind, first of all, to be able to be on the start on Saturday is something. I really don't bother myself with those questions.
"I changed teams, for example, to have the opportunity to go for it. For myself, either I win the Tour or not, and then next year there's another one and another one. There's a day and night. The facts are there.
"Just to have no regrets, to really put everything into things and try to do your best – that's definitely something I have to go with. If it's the last one or if I have 10 more, it's something I will do as long as I have fun."
While Pogačar hasn't raced since winning the Giro d'Italia in May and Vingegaard hasn't raced since the Itzulia crash in April, Roglič can start the Tour with a recent Critérium du Dauphiné victory under his belt, having comprehensively beaten Evenepoel at the week-long race.
He worked well with new teammate and super-domestique Aleksandr Vlasov in France, despite a final stage scare, while any shoulder pain sustained in a mass crash on stage 5 of the race hasn't lingered, he said.
"It's part of work [to prepare] but at the moment I feel good," he said of recovering from the pain. "It has worked well in the last week, and I don't really have any pain. I'll enjoy this feeling until Saturday.
"The Tour is three weeks long. But it's starting with one [day]. You have to be there, and you try to win it from day one to 21.
"It will already be a big fight on stage 1, stage 2, big mountains with the Galibier on stage 4, and then time trials, gravel stages. It's a crazy first week, no? And even bigger things to follow."
Vlasov will be back by Roglič's side at the weekend and through the rest of the Tour, while Jai Hindley, Matteo Sobrero, Nico Denz, Marco Haller, Danny van Poppel, and Bob Jungels will also be on hand to support his yellow jersey bid.
Having spent the past eight years at Jumbo-Visma, the race marks the first Tour of Roglič's career away from the Dutch squad, while a new title sponsor in Red Bull marks another change.
"Hopefully it gives us wings, no?" Roglič joked. "It's really great to be a part of this big project. Coming in with a big sponsor like Red Bull is really a changer for the whole cycling world. That's why teams are stronger and why riders are stronger. It's pushing the level of cycling to go higher and higher for the lot of us.
"But I don't think so much about opponents and all the rest because with having a new team and all the guys around me, we have enough work fine-tuning ourselves. These are the things I'm thinking about and then trying to execute later."
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